Jae-hee casually tossed an empty can into the trash, then the transfer student nervously handed him a letter. After a quick glance at the letter, Jaehee shook his head and gently pushed her down the hallway.
A shot of Jae-hee making a camera frame with his fingers was followed by a smooth transition to the hallway scene. As Jae-hee’s part ended, Eden’s rap began, set against a backdrop of dark blue lighting with neon signs glowing around.
This was the scene teased earlier.
Eden, biting into a lollipop and looking off into the distance, tipped over a cup, spilling its contents on the floor, and tossed the lollipop behind him.
As the lollipop shattered on the floor, the camera zoomed out, showing Eden with his arm around the transfer student’s shoulder.
They headed towards a dart machine on the wall. Eden glanced at the letter the transfer student showed him, shrugged, and grabbed a dart.
His dart hit the bullseye, and the camera zoomed in on the dartboard’s center, then zoomed out to a group of people gathered around.
Dobin, who had been breakdancing in the middle of the group, noticed the transfer student and approached her. After seeing the letter, he playfully shook his head, waltzed briefly with her, and then sent her over to Ye-hyun.
Ye-hyun, after reading the letter, closed it and led her to a TV screen playing “Just Dance.” They danced together, with Ye-hyun handing her the controller. After dancing, Ye-hyun playfully nudged her towards a small makeshift stage.
The second chorus began, featuring a group dance shot in front of a mansion and an open car. Unlike the more relaxed choreography of the first verse, this dance was more structured.
After the group dance, the scene shifted to Ha-jun and the transfer student standing awkwardly side by side on stage, reminiscent of the first meeting of the leads in “High School Musical.”
As Ha-jun and the transfer student sang to each other, the scene blurred, transitioning into Ha-jun’s flashback of watching the transfer student.
The perspective shifted to the transfer student’s point of view, showing her opening a book of sonnets Ha-jun had given her.
The bookmarked page was Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, ending with “To. Daydream” scribbled in cursive, matching the handwriting on the letter saying “Come to me.”
As Jae-hee’s high note played, the camera faded out, showing a group shot of REVE members lounging on a couch.
The camera then rotated 360 degrees, capturing the group dancing and jumping around to the repeated hook, before they all collapsed onto the messy floor. The shot transitioned to an overhead view as the song ended.
As the instrumental chorus played, a short video like a post-credits scene showed Eden, Ye-hyun, Jaehee, and Dobin each opening a locker and placing a letter inside.
Watching from the classroom, Ha-jun stood by an empty window as the sunset bathed the room in light. He then walked out, stood in front of the locker, and placed his letter inside, pulling out the four previously placed letters as the screen went black.
Kim Mo-young finally uncovered her mouth and, with trembling hands, typed a message on SNS:
REVE♥Daydream @revedream
“F*ck, I have no regrets even if I die
My head is pounding as I watch the music video for the 513,645th time
Shared 23 Quotes 88 Likes 511”
Wondering if her perception of the music video was biased by her adoration for the group, she quickly browsed online communities.
The reactions were mostly positive, much like hers. Coming off a particularly bad previous release, fans were in a festive mood, grateful for a decent song and music video.
The new song “All Right or Night” by REVE finally appeared in the TOP 100 chart, entering at 78th place with 8,102 hearts.
Although only one of the four other tracks made it into the top 100 at 99th place, this was a considerable improvement from their last album, “My Universe,” where no song charted except for the title track, which had surged due to a retrospective boost.
As she streamed the new songs across different platforms, she eyed the current chart-topper, “Time’s Up” by KICKS.
Comparing it with REVE’s music, she mused, “If everything goes well, we might even overtake KICKS.”
* * *
“Hyung, aren’t you checking the charts? Our rank is rising!” Ryu Jae-hee, seated on the cold studio floor instead of a chair, waved his phone around.
“Yeah, let me know if we surpass KICKS. Until then, I don’t want to see it. Don’t even mention our rank until then,” I grumbled, furrowing my brow.
How could our song be ranked below KICKS? Is this a joke? Am I supposed to watch this nonsense?
No matter how sure a success that song might be, I won’t consider it a victory unless we surpass KICKS.
“Me neither. And Jae-hee, if you don’t want to catch a cold like me, sit on a chair instead of the floor,” Ha-jun, draped in a blanket, added.
Next to him, Kim Do-bin hummed the annoying melody of “Time’s Up.”
“Okay, it’s time. Time to surpass KICKS.”
“Are you singing KICKS’ song right now? Are you mocking us or something?”
As I massaged Kim Do-bin’s scalp, he sighed in relief, clearly enjoying it.
“I changed the lyrics! It’s just a parody! Someone save me! Hyung, please stop Eden!”
“Don’t make him cry; we have to do a live later.”
“Ha-jun hyung!”
I chuckled at Do-bin’s desperate call. Did he think Ha-jun would take his side?
Just then, our stylist and manager entered the studio, saving Kim Do-bin from my grasp.
While we usually ran our own live sessions, today’s live was a special comeback and album unboxing event, so the company had set it up for us. As the cameras and laptop were being set up, the stylist called me over first.
“Eden, are you not sleeping well lately? Your dark circles are getting worse.”
As she applied cover-up makeup, I sighed and replied, “I want to sleep, but I can’t.”
“Is it insomnia? Stress?”
“No, it’s because of the music I’m working on. Is it that bad?”
“It’s still manageable with makeup, but if it gets worse, it might show.”
“Wow, that’s a problem. This concept is fresh, not dark or sexy.” I joked weakly.
Due to the reality show’s proposal to film the process of creating a digital single and shooting a music video for Christmas, I found myself working through the night, something I wasn’t accustomed to.
The deadline was so tight that I thought about just accepting a pre-made song, but they insisted on capturing me producing the song myself.
It was frustrating, as if they thought creating a song was as easy as waving a magic wand. But what could I do? We were in a position where we had to comply.
To prevent any misunderstandings from Dobin, I made sure to tell him I was heading to the studio each time I went out and sent him a photo upon arrival.
**November 14th**
[(Photo)]
[Arrived at the studio] 7:36 PM
[Kim Dobin – Got it, hang in there!] 7:36 PM
[I’m probably not going to be back until after 4 AM, so tell Ha-jun not to wait up and just go to bed] 10:31 PM
[Kim Dobin – Got it!] 10:31 PM
[Kim Dobin – Ha-jun hyung says don’t overwork yourself too much] 10:32 PM
**November 15th**
[(Photo)]
[Arrived at the studio] 7:01 PM
[Kim Dobin – Noted! Hang in there!] 7:01 PM
[Tell Seo Ye-hyun that if he throws out the bread in the fridge again, his stuff will be thrown out next day] 7:03 PM
[Kim Dobin – Hyung, Ye-hyun hyung said he already threw it away…] 7:05 PM
[Kim Dobin – He said if you’re going to buy bread to eat late at night, why get chocolate cream bread and croquettes when we’re about to have a comeback, and do you have any sense…] 7:06 PM
[Tell him to not make people so angry]
[Ah, the more I think about it, the more annoyed I get. Is he in any position to talk, being such a mess himself?] 7:08 PM
[Don’t relay that]
[And buy some more bread] 7:09 PM
[Kim Dobin – What kind of bread should I get?] 7:09 PM
[Double chocolate cream bread and potato croquettes]
[If you bring whole wheat bread, I’ll wake you up at dawn to eat it] 7:11 PM
[Kim Dobin – Why are you giving me this trial…?] 7:11 PM
Our messenger conversations were filled with exchanges like this.
Since I hadn’t found a suitable studio yet, I was again relying on Yong-cheol hyung.
When I suggested having Korean beef without Kim Joon-bum, he was all smiles.
After finishing my makeup and hair, I returned to find Ha-jun slumped in a chair, pressing on his eye sockets and muttering.
“Will makeup make it any better? Hopefully, it won’t show too much on camera…”
***
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